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It tastes like the real thing! These genius hacks make the best Worcestershire sauce substitutes with pantry ingredients you have on hand.

Worcestershire Sauce Substitute
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Worcestershire sauce is a common condiment that adds savory and complex flavors to dishes from Caesar dressing to chili to the classic Bloody Mary. Worcestershire sauce was invented in Britain in the mid-1800’s. Its flavor is tangy, salty, sweet, savory, and a little funky all at once! It includes cured anchovies, so Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian or vegan.

Looking for a Worcestershire sauce substitute in a recipe? Here’s a genius hack that uses ingredients you likely have on hand in your pantry! It tastes very similar to the real thing, and it takes 1 minute to put together. It also works as a vegan Worcestershire sauce! There are also a few more ideas as a Worcestershire sauce alternative.

How to say Worcestershire sauce? Say it like “wusster-shir sauce.”

Best Worcestershire sauce substitutes

1. Soy sauce, ketchup and white wine vinegar

The best Worcestershire sauce substitute? A combination of soy sauce, ketchup, and white wine vinegar! This combination is a mix of pantry ingredients that tastes oddly similar to the real thing. Here’s what you need for a small batch (multiply as needed):

  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • ½ tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari or coconut aminos)
  • 1 dash hot sauce (optional)

You’ll find this mix of ingredients brings in just the right elements: tangy, salty, savory, and a little sweet. If you have it, hot sauce adds a bit of the spice that Worcestershire sauce brings from chili extract. You could even add a dash of fish sauce, but it’s not needed. Use tamari (gluten free) or coconut aminos (gluten free and soy free) as soy sauce substitutes.

2. Soy sauce or vinegar

Don’t have all of the ingredients above? The overriding flavors in Worcestershire sauce are salty and tangy. If you don’t want to make the recipe above, you could use soy sauce, vinegar, or a mix of the two. You could also use miso in combination with either of the two. But the recipe above is really the best fit!

  • For 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, use ½ teaspoon soy sauce and ½ teaspoon rice vinegar.
  • If you have it, stir in ½ teaspoon miso paste until it dissolves.

3. Fish sauce

Fish sauce is a condiment made from fermented fish that’s used often in Southeast Asian cuisine, like the food of Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Burma, and Vietnam. It’s got a funky, tangy and salty flavor that works as a 1:1 replacement for Worcestershire sauce. However, Worcestershire sauce tastes sweeter and has more notes of onion and garlic, so you could add a hint of sugar and onion or garlic powder if desired.

4. A1 sauce

A1 sauce is a condiment that’s typically used as a steak sauce. It’s a great Worcestershire sauce alterative if you have it on hand since the flavor profiles are very similar, though A1 sauce is thicker in texture. It’s made with tomato puree, raisin paste, vinegar, orange puree, garlic and onions.

Worcestershire Sauce Substitute
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Worcestershire Sauce Substitute (Genius Hack!)

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5 from 17 reviews

It tastes just like the real thing! This genius hack makes the best Worcestershire sauce substitute with pantry ingredients you have on hand.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 1 minute
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 minute
  • Yield: 2 ½ tablespoons 1x
  • Category: Essentials
  • Method: Mixed
  • Cuisine: Vegan
  • Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or ½ tablespoon white vinegar)
  • ½ tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari or coconut aminos)
  • 1 small dash hot sauce (optional)

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth. 

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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23 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    thanks!

  2. Temp says:

    I was making a Cottage pie but didn’t have any Worcestershire sauce so used the first method but used balsamic vinegar in place of wine vinegar, turned out perfectly! Thanks so much






  3. Donna says:

    Thanks for this recipe! I needed a Tbsp of sauce for a recipe and had all the ingredients. I used sugar-free ketchup. :)






  4. Christine H says:

    To the rescue on Christmas Eve while making the Chex Mix–thought I had plenty (and guess what??!). Thanks!!!!!

  5. Sue Gauerke says:

    Can this be substituted fir worcestershire sauce in Chex Mix?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      We haven’t tried it, but it should work!

  6. Susan Yosef says:

    I have been looking for a substitution for Worcestershire Sauce for quite a while, as I could not find it here in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it would not be Kosher for the more observant Jews as the original sauce contains fish, which the more observant to do not mix with meat and therefore would, most likely, not be certified Kosher.

    In any event, I accidentally came across your recipe for Worcestershire Sauce (with either white wine vinegar or Balsalmic vinegar, I tried both ways. While, the white wine vinegar was good, the version with Balsalmic vinegar absolute HIT THE SPOT. Thank you.

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      So glad it worked for you! Thanks for the comment.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Such an easy and convenient substitute for Worcestershire!

    Needed this in a pinch to make salisbury steak – worked wonderfully with items I readily had on hand.

    Thanks for sharing!






  8. Hayley says:

    This was magical, thank you!






  9. Betsy King says:

    There I was in the middle of making my yearly real Chex Mix, circa 2003, when I ran out of Worcestershire Sauce……URG and no time to run to the store. I did a internet query and up popped “A Couple Cooks” recipe. Everything was in my refrigerator/ pantry… the day was saved (this might be a little dramatic!!), and I could keep cooking. The end result was a little sweet, but I’m sure I would be the only one that would notice. Thanks “A Couple Cooks” and Happy New Year to all………






  10. Liza Mojica says:

    This totally worked… I didn’t have white wine vinegar but I did have rice vinegar. Will definently be using this in the future. Thanks! You saved tonight’s dinner 😅






  11. Drew says:

    Great substitute for Worcestershire! Actually tastes very similar. Thank you!






  12. Melanie Hartmann says:

    Love this! Especially because we travel full-time in an RV. We don’t use Worcestershire sauce enough to cart around a bottle with us. This recipe is the perfect solution! Thank you for sharing!






  13. Ella Janeke says:

    Simply amazing! I was skeptical as I measured and mixed, but delightfully surprised when I tasted the result! Was perfect in the recipe needing the Worcestershire, could not tell it wasn’t the bought bottled stuff!






  14. Liz C says:

    Wow this turned out tasting amazing! I used a good amount of tobasco siracha and a dash of crystal hot sauce.






  15. Sue Kartzmark says:

    was thrilled to find this as I am allergic to all forms of fish, sea food, shell fish, fresh water fish and mushrooms there are a lot of sauces and stuff I have to be careful with for example even some brands of ranch dressing has anchovy paste. So to be able to find alternates that taste like the original are a blessing and hard to find ty






  16. Elaine Charest says:

    Great substitution. I added a little more soy to mine.






  17. Anonymous says:

    Super easy and did not change the dish at all.






    1. Melissa Wilkinson says:

      Thank you, I saved a trip to the grocery store while making beef stew. Turned out awesome!






  18. Julie W says:

    Pretty good substitute, and yes, I did use the dash of hot sauce 😃which gave it a little something something! Thank you for a quick and tasty recipe!






    1. Marla Hoffmann says:

      One word. F A B U L O U S
      I was making a larger meatloaf (5lbs sirloin) got EVERYTHING except worshistire sauce🤦 Now worshistire sauce is literally that one ingredient that we ALWAYS have available🤷
      Google must like your hack as well, bc here you are to save the day! Perfect. I LOVE it and I definitely subscribed! Truly Rockstars. So excited to find you guys & I’ll stay tuned 🥳






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